The present invention is directed to an outpatient care data system that tracks the status of patients at locations remote from a hospital.
A hospital typically has a computerized patient data network that keeps track of the medical status of patients currently in the hospital. Such a network could keep track of medical treatments administered to the patients, billing data relating to costs incurred by the patients, medical history data relating to patients such as prior medical procedures received by the patients, medical condition data such as medications to which patients are allergic, etc.
Although generally advantageous to track the medical status of the patients when they are in the hospital, such an in-hospital network cannot keep track of patients after they leave the hospital. For example, when a patient is discharged from the hospital to a skilled care facility, personnel at the skilled care facility must manually obtain the patient's medical and personal information from the patient and/or the hospital, resulting in duplication of effort and the possibility of erroneous information being entered or pertinent information being omitted. This disadvantage is aggravated by the current tendency to minimize a patient's stay in the hospital due to pressures to limit medical costs.